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DRAFT FOR ATTORNEY REVIEW — NOT FINAL

§ 46a-58

Citation
§ 46a-58
Parent Document
Connecticut Judicial Branch v. Gilbert, 343 Conn. 90 (2022)
Jurisdiction
Connecticut (state)
Effective Date
2022-04-26

Other Sections in This Document (128)

Full Text

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§ 46a-58 (a), which, unlike § 46a-60, attaches to a reme-
          dies provision that includes economic damages and
          attorney’s fees.5 With respect to the second claim, the
          trial court disagreed with the branch and concluded
          that the state has waived its sovereign immunity as to
          prejudgment and postjudgment interest for civil rights
          violations.
             The branch appealed6 and the commission cross
          appealed from the judgment of the trial court to the
          Appellate Court, and we transferred the appeal and
          cross appeal to this court pursuant to General Statutes
          § 51-199 (c) and Practice Book § 65-2.7 Additional facts
          and procedural history will be set forth as necessary.
                                                 I
           REMEDIES FOR EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION
                      UNDER STATE LAW
            The branch’s primary claim on appeal is that the trial
          court incorrectly concluded that the commission may
             5
               Section 46a-86 (c) provides the remedies for violations of, among other
          laws, § 46a-58, the general antidiscrimination statute. At all relevant times,
          § 46a-86 (c) allowed for the recovery of economic damages and attorney’s
          fees. By contrast, prior to its 2019 amendment, § 46a-86 (b), which contains
          the remedies for violations of the employment discrimination statute, § 46a-
          60, did not allow for the recovery of economic damages or attorney’s fees.
          See Public Acts 2019, No. 19-16, § 7.
             6
               The complainant has not participated in the present appeal.
             7
               When an appeal is transferred from the Appellate Court to this court, it
          often will be advisable for the parties to seek permission to revise their
          briefs accordingly. This approach may be beneficial, for example, when the
          ongoing vitality of one of our decisions is in question, insofar as the Appellate
          Court lacks the authority to overrule or modify this court’s precedents. See,
          e.g., Conway v. Wilton, 238 Conn. 653, 657, 680 A.2d 242 (1996).
             In the present case, for example, the commission questioned the ongoing
          vitality of Truelove in its briefing to the Appellate Court but did not directly
          argue that Truelove should be overruled, presumably because that court
          lacks the authority to do so. Following transfer of the appeals and oral
          argument, we ordered the parties to submit supplemental briefs to address
          directly the question of whether Truelove was correctly decided. See, e.g.,
          Blumberg Associates Worldwide, Inc. v. Brown & Brown of Connecticut,
          Inc., 311 Conn. 123, 161–62, 84 A.3d 840 (2014). As we explain subsequently
          in this opinion, we have determined that the holding in Truelove does not
April 26, 2022                CONNECTICUT LAW JOURNAL                                 Page 41